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1 U.S. dollar buys 1 million Zimbabwe
dollars on black market

International Herald Tribune

The Associated PressPublished: October 18,
2007

HARARE, Zimbabwe: The black market exchange rate for the
U.S. dollar broke the 1 million Zimbabwe dollar mark Thursday and the
government announced another sharp jump in inflation.

Worsening hard
currency shortages more than doubled the price of the U.S. currency in the
past 10 days, pushed up by central bank buying on the unofficial market,
dealers said.

"People are asking for a million and getting it in big bank
to bank transfers. Cash for cash is anything above 750,000-1," as the
country faces shortages of local bills, said one dealer. "Technically, it's
still illegal."

The official exchange rate is 30,000-1. In the first
week of October, the black market rate surged to about 520,000-1, up from
400,000-1 in mid September.

"There's too little foreign exchange out
there and too many chasing it," including the central bank, said the dealer,
who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being punished by the
government.

Today in Africa & Middle East

Those with
foreign exchange "don't want to part with it as a hedge against inflation,"
the dealer said.

Lengthy power and water outages linked to shortages of
hard currency, spare parts and gasoline occur daily.

Travelers
returning home to Harare from shopping trips for soap, cooking and other
basics across the country's borders have reported central bank buyers at the
downtown bus terminal offering top black market rates for leftover U.S.,
Botswana and South African currencies needed to pay for food, power and
gasoline imports.

Police raids on currency dealers at the terminal have
stopped.

Central bank governor Gideon Gono said in a policy speech this
month that his bank saw the terminal as a source of hard currency and that
the official exchange rate was all but obsolete.

The state central
statistical office announced official annual inflation rose to 7,982 percent
in September, up from 6,592 in August, already the highest in the world.
Independent estimates put real inflation closer to 25,000 percent and the
International Monetary Fund has forecast it reaching 100,000 percent by the
end of the year.

According to the monthly statistical review Thursday,
the poverty line for a family of five nearly doubled to 22.6 million
Zimbabwe dollars (US$22.60, €16.25 at the dominant black market exchange
rate) in September, amid rising prices and rampant black marketeering in
scarce staples. Most essential goods that have disappeared from store
shelves.

A senior school teacher earns three-fourths of the benchmark for
poverty — about US$17 (€12), having received a 200 percent pay increase
awarded after a crippling strike closed down schools across the country
earlier this month.

A regular police patrolman takes homes less that
US$5 (€3.50) a month.

When available, a can of beans costs about 60 U.S.
cents (about 40 euro cents) at the black market exchange or US$15 (€10) at
the official rate.

In a bid to tame inflation the government in June
ordered prices on most goods and services to be slashed but relaxed this as
it merely worsened already chronic shortages. On Friday, the government
allowed a 300 percent increase in the price of a loaf of bread.

An
estimated 4 million Zimbabweans — one-third of the population — live and
work abroad and their remittances are the largest single source of hard
currency. Zimbabwe was once the region's breadbasket and Africa's second
largest exporter after South Africa.

New Murambatsvina Wave Hits Kwekwe

38 families from Amaveni in KweKwe were
last week left homeless after council officials from the town, accompanied
by heavily armed police officers, used sledgehammers to knock down their
homes.

The latest crackdown against 'illegal' housing by the Zanu-PF led
council in the town has met with harsh condemnation from the local MDC MP
Blessing Chebundo, who described it as 'heartless' and politically
motivated.

The demolitions were carried out last week Tuesday on a
plot in Chiwundura B where most of those affected had lived for more than 40
years. Chebundo said reports they got were that anyone who tried to resist
was dealt with brutally.

The MP said feelings are running very high
in the area which is a known stronghold of the MDC. Over 120 people are now
living on the streets.

'This is political retribution against MDC
supporters. The same people were targeted in 2003 for voting MDC in 2002. In
2005 some homes in the plot were demolished and now they have come back to
ensure no one will be around to vote in 2008,' Chebundo said.

While
the constituency in KweKwe is held by the MDC, council operations are still
run by a Zanu-PF elected Mayor, assisted by officials appointed during the
reign of Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former Zanu-PF legislator for the
town.

Chebundo defeated Mnangagwa in the 2000 parliamentary elections but
not before escaping death by a whisker during a bitter campaign when Zanu-PF
youths who had abducted him from his house doused him with petrol but were
unable to light a match.

'We are still dealing with callous and
murderous Zanu-PF officials in the town. The problem is they are fighting a
losing battle, hence they resort to all extremes to try and influence things
in their favour,' Chebundo said.

The MP urged humanitarian groups to
visit the area and help with food, blankets and shelter. He said at moment
they have only managed to raise enough tents to shelter young members from
the families affected.

Bar Mugabe from EU-Africa meet, say Nordic countries

Reuters

Thu 18
Oct 2007, 18:16 GMT

By Ingrid Melander

LISBON, Oct 18 (Reuters) -
Sweden and Finland on Thursday called for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
to be excluded from an EU-Africa summit in December but left open whether
they would join a British boycott if he showed up.

Danish Prime
Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also said he had not decided whether to
attend the Dec. 8-9 summit in Lisbon if Mugabe came, adding that serious
discussion on Zimbabwe and human rights was a precondition for his
attendance.

Pressed by competition for scarce resources with China,
the European Union wants to hold its first summit with African leaders in
seven years in December, but has not yet solved the thorny issue of Mugabe's
attendance.

"We are asking the (EU) Portuguese Presidency to tell him
that he should not be here and he should certainly not be given a central
role," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told Reuters on the margins
of a meeting of EU leaders in Lisbon.

Asked if he would consider
boycotting the summit, Reinfeldt said the EU should take a collective
decision on the matter.

Separately, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen
said he would decide whether to participate only after it was decided who
would represent Zimbabwe.

"I hope that Zimbabwe can be at the meeting
at another level (than Mugabe)" Vanhanen told Reuters, noting arrangements
for an EU-Asia summit last year where the military leadership of Myanmar was
represented only by a minister.

All three countries, which pride
themselves on being pro-active in pushing for respect of human rights around
the world, said the EU-Africa summit was crucial and that they wanted it to
take place.

"We have not decided yet (whether to attend) but for us it is
very important to have this EU-Africa summit ... we have a lot of common
interests, we have a lot of very important issues to discuss," Denmark's
Rasmussen told Reuters.

Critics accuse Mugabe of rigging elections,
human rights abuses and presiding over the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy,
now marked by the world's highest inflation rate of about 6,600 percent and
joblessness of about 80 percent.

Mugabe blames Western powers for the
economic crisis and accuses them, and former colonial ruler Britain in
particular, of plotting with the opposition to oust him. African leaders see
him as an independence hero.

Mugabe is subject to an EU travel ban but
the ban can be suspended to allow him to attend the December summit in
Lisbon.

The EU and Africa have failed to organise a summit for years
because Britain and other EU states refused to attend if Mugabe did, and
African leaders would not attend if he was barred.

Lisbon says it
will invite all leaders this time, including Mugabe, but it has yet to send
the invitations. Portuguese diplomats have said the invitations will be sent
on Oct 30.

Officials say many EU states, pressed by competition from
China in Africa, back Portugal.

However Czech Deputy Prime Minister
for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra told reporters last week that his
country was also considering boycotting the meeting if Mugabe attends
it.

Speaking ahead of the EU summit, Brown reaffirmed his insistence that
he could not sit at the same table as Mugabe.

"What has happened to
Zimbabwe is a tragedy and we cannot give any comfort to President Mugabe to
be present at the same conference as him," he told a news
conference.

Brown has said neither he nor any senior member of the
British government will attend alongside Mugabe.

Brown renews Mugabe boycott warning

LISBON (AFP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown renewed Thursday a
warning that Britain will boycott a summit of European and African leaders
if Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe attends.

Speaking shortly
before the start of a European Union summit in Lisbon, he said Mugabe had
overseen a "tragedy" in the African country, a former British colony."We
will not participate in a conference that President Mugabe is at. We cannot
sit down at the same table as President Mugabe," he said, referring to the
planned December summit between EU and African leaders.

"We're not
prepared to give any credence or credibility to someone who has so
ruthlessly destroyed human rights in his country."

Brown said Mugabe "is
now responsible for four million refugees who have left his country and are
now in South Africa and where the levels of poverty in his country are now
running at something in the order of 80 percent.

"What has happend to
Zimbabwe is a tragedy and we cannot give any comfort to President Mugabe by
being at the same conference as him."

The EU leaders were expected to
discuss the European-Africa meeting on the sidelines of the Lisbon summit,
which is primarily to approve a new EU treaty.

Portugal's Foreign
Minister Luis Amado, whose country currently has the EU's rotating
presidency, said last week that the guest list would be finalized by the end
of October.

Zimbabwe Suffers Hyperinflation, Shortage of Food

VOA

By
VOA NewsBulawayo, Zimbabwe18 October
2007

We bring you a rare look inside the troubled southern
African nation of Zimbabwe. Today, this nation of between 10 million and 12
million is teetering on the edge of what a member of its own parliament is
calling "the world's gravest humanitarian crisis."

But few outside
Africa understand the depth of Zimbabwe's plight because the government has
declared independent reporting a crime. There are harsh penalties,
including beatings and jail, for journalists working without government
approval.

But for several months beginning in June, a television reporter
was able to travel across Zimbabwe with a camera. A correspondent for VOA,
who must remain anonymous for security reasons, files this undercover report
from Bulawayo. The report begins in a place well-known to many international
tourists.

We are cruising the Zambezi River that separates Zimbabwe
from Zambia, with a boat-full of visitors from Europe, the United States and
Japan.

It is called a "booze cruise" because the wine flows freely. The
captain carefully maneuvers his boat into the shallower water -- better for
close-up photos of sleepy crocodiles lounging along the bank.

But
here, even the thunderous roar of one of the seven natural wonders of the
world, Victoria Falls -- cannot overpower the more discordant voices -- now
being raised in the less tourist-friendly parts of this troubled
country.

Here -- a noisy public street protest against the government
of President Robert Mugabe, taking place in one of Zimbabwe's largest
cities. This one is staged by more than a hundred members of a group called
Women of Zimbabwe Arise.

Minutes after this undercover video was
taken, marchers were attacked by blue-helmeted riot police. Many of the
women were beaten and arrested. One said, "They come running with battle
sticks. They beat me, beat me all over and then they beat me at the
breasts."

Many tourists never hear or see this -- hundreds of
Zimbabweans, desperate to feed their families, pressed against the iron
security bars of a butcher shop, hoping to get in to buy a tiny ration of
meat. It is a commodity that has basically disappeared from stores across
the country. They shout at the shop workers, begging to be let in, waving
their $100,000 Zim -- notes worth now only 14 cents U.S. each.

Other
undercover video shot from a moving car shows Zimbabweans waiting, hour
after hour, in massive queues searching for necessities of life -- bread,
maize meal, beans, meat. They queue from first thing in the morning until
late in the evening.

The cruelest irony is that in a country with rampant
poverty and an unemployment rate approaching 90 percent, almost everyone on
these streets is technically a millionaire.

Inflation in Zimbabwe is
now the worst in the world, acknowledged by the government to be running at
over 7,000 percent, although experts put it much higher.

$1 Zim, once
equal in value to $1 U.S. is now actually worth less than a single sheet of
toilet paper -- offered in one store in bulk for one and a half million
dollars per pack.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president of 27 years, blames
his country's hyperinflation on a plot he says was engineered by Great
Britain and other western nations to sabotage the economy. He said, "Our
detractors have redoubled their efforts to achieve illegal regime change in
order to reverse our land reform program."

A woman shopping in the
grocery store said, "One donut is $16,000." And so in mid-June, instant
coffee costs over a million dollars a jar and a chicken sells for a quarter
million. Days later, Mr. Mugabe's government simply ordered the price of
everything sold slashed by 50 percent.

Zimbabwean police task forces were
issued orders to force businesses to lower their prices, regardless of what
they pay wholesale -- causing disorder on the streets, and forcing hundreds
of businesses to close their doors for fear of bankruptcy.

Now most
of the shelves are empty and there is almost nothing left to buy or
eat.

"I think that one of the tragedies of Zimbabwe is that there are
people who are not going to survive this," says David Coltart, a member of
the Zimbabwe Parliament.

A leader of the opposition, David Coltart,
was elected from a district that is overwhelmingly black.

He says,
"The only graphic evidence that one can give a journalist or a visitor to
this country of the devastation caused to people is by taking them to
cemeteries. When you go to cemeteries they look like the Battle of the Somme
[World War I battle in France, with more than one million casualties], acres
and acres of mounds of earth, freshly dug, freshly filled, containing the
bodies of thousands of Zimbabweans who are falling off the edge of our
society."

It is these graves -- now dug even smaller than a coffin-sized
template -- that Coltart and others say bear strongest witness to the human
cost of the country's economic collapse.

This cold June in Zimbabwe,
shortages include even the space that is needed to bury the tiniest of the
dead.

Zimbabwe Price Controls Cause Food Disturbances,
Shortages

VOA

By VOA NewsBulawayo, Zimbabwe18
October 2007

In late June of this year, the Zimbabwe
government sought to curb the country's rampant currency inflation,
admitting it to be around 7,000 percent. Other say it is much higher. The
government embarked on an operation to control prices of all goods sold,
slashing them by half or more. Zimbabwe police officers were issued orders
to throw business owners in jail if they did not comply and seize their
businesses if they dared to shut their doors.

A correspondent for
VOA, who must remain anonymous for security reasons, files this undercover
report from Bulawayo.

It is early June in 2007, and prices in Zimbabwe
are at an all-time high. Instant coffee is selling for over a million
Zimbabwe dollars a jar, roughly $2 U.S. And a small bag of tomatoes costs
around $33,000.

One shopper said, "One donut cost $16,000." But
Zimbabweans pay the high prices, blaming the runaway economy and the
worthless currency.

Abruptly, the Zimbabwean government, through its
state controlled media outlets, claims it has found the reason behind the
country's inflation. It blames the entire problem on business owners, who
it says have been profiteering.

Government TV: "You are ordered to
stop these things that you're doing here."

As the country's
vice-president labels them "economic saboteurs," the government orders the
prices of everything slashed by 50 percent -- deeper in some cases. Police
are issued orders to enforce the price cuts, and jail any business owners
who refuse to comply.

The result is confusion -- as evidenced by our
undercover video taken at a store in the second largest city, Bulawayo.
Hoards of Zimbabweans rush to the shops to buy everything they can for the
reduced prices. They stand in lines for hours for the cheap
goods.

But weeks later, in early July, the operation has lost its
luster. One butchery, whose refrigerated rooms were filled with meat at the
beginning of the price controls, has now run out. The owner cannot afford
to buy anymore.

Closed doors. Bankrupt businesses. Thousands of
business owners jailed, they cannot afford to replace their stock at the
stipulated prices. Inflation worsens and the people outside are
hungry.

Video, shot from one of Bulawayo's high-rise buildings, shows a
seething, agitated crowd of people waiting for a delivery of sugar. Fights
break out, and eventually the riot police are called. Across town, two
people are killed at another shop by a stampede of people running to get
sugar.

Back at the butchery, customers wait in line for a small ration of
beef. The owner had to close the doors for fear of a riot. Patrons are only
allowed in 10 at a time. They shout at the shop workers, waving $100,000
notes.

Afterwards, we spoke with the owner, who wishes to remain
anonymous. He said, "If they come through, you're not going to stop them.
Then what are they going to do when they get through, anyway? They are
angry. Those people were screaming and shouting and only when the riot
police came, and sorted them out, did they get into their queues."

He
explained how the police, called to calm the crowd, pushed to the front of
the line to get the meat themselves. "Because they are coming in first,
buying the meat, and then they disappear and leave us with the crowd," he
said. Officers also demanded free meat at other times as bribes to leave the
shop owners alone.

The government claims the price control operation
is a success.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said, "The prices must
be affordable prices and the people will buy. If the people are ill-treated
by suppliers, producers and suppliers, we intervene as
government."

In August, state media televised the nation's famous
agricultural show, with Mr. Mugabe posing with farm animals. Critics called
this a 'crude attempt' to divert the country's attention from its real
problems.

But the lines of people outside stores tell a different story.
In late September, faced with a hungry, angry population, some prices were
allowed to rise incrementally. But many businesses simply cannot afford to
stock shelves with goods people could not afford to buy.

A Balancing Act Between China And the EU

The Zimbabwean government's
isolation from the international economic arena has forced it to turn right
while indicating left.

The country's deputy minister of industry and
international trade, Pheneas Chihota, recently made a startling admission
when he said that the European Union (EU), which imposed targeted sanctions
against the Zimbabwean political elite over its blighted human rights
record, still remains the troubled southern African country's key trade
partner.

The Zimbabwean government stands accused of a string of
human rights abuses, including the arbitrary arrest, detention and random
assault of perceived enemies of the state.

The minister's remarks,
made in the parliament's house of assembly, came as a surprise to some since
the government had in the past year earmarked the Asian continent,
particularly China, as its trade partner of first resort. China has been
granted approved destination status (ADS), which gives the Asian country
easy access to Zimbabwean markets.

The government even went a step
further, launching the "Look East" Policy which was designed to find new
markets for the country's products. But this move is yet to bear fruit, as
former Zimbabwean ambassador to China, Chris Mutsvangwa, has
admitted.

He said that "local business people are reluctant to partner
Chinese business".

Chihota's candid comment was seen as an admission
by the government that the "Look East Policy", derisively dismissed by
Zimbabweans, has failed to contribute any meaningful development to
Zimbabwe's crumbling economy.

The government has seemingly realised that
the EU remains a crucial market for Zimbabwean products.

"The country
is benefiting from trade with the EU and the EU is by far the most important
donor to this country," Chihota told the house of assembly before the
presentation of Zimbabwe's supplementary budget by Finance Minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi last month.

"Zimbabwe exports 55,000 tons of sugar to the EU
every year. Our companies are benefiting from sugar exports," Chihota added.
He expressed support for the economic partnership agreements (EPAs)
currently being negotiated between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific
(ACP) states.

Chihota's comments come at a time when the EU's EPA offer
includes the phasing out of duties and quotas on sugar from ACP countries.
The minister used the time to rally parliamentarians around this process,
which is scheduled to start in January 2008 if the EPA talks are
concluded.

Zimbabwe is a major exporter of sugar from its gigantic
plantations in the southwest of the country. Accepting the EPA, Chihota
said, would ensure that the country could export sugar at improved terms.
The EU says low cost producers like Zimbabwe and Malawi stand to benefit
immensely from the proposed liberalisation of the sugar trade
market.

However, the cutting of duties and quotas also coincides with the
EU's decision to cut its minimum guaranteed price for sugar. The EU price
will drop by 36 percent between 2006 and 2009, which will bring it in line
with the world sugar price.

Producers in Malawi and Mauritius have
expressed concern about the effect the drop in prices will have on new
investment which is planned in the industries to capitalise on the lower
duties.

IPS has reported that sugar prices could fall from 400 to 500
euros per metric ton to just 335 euros per metric ton. The drop may continue
even further in 2009 when duty-free access will be extended with safeguards.
Quota and duty requirements will only be scrapped in totality in
2015.

Despite the political standoff with the EU and the U.S., official
statistics indicate that Zimbabwe's imports from the United Kingdom and
Germany totalled about 330 million dollars in 2006.

The EU was once
the largest consumer of Zimbabwean beef, with more than 9,000 tons per year
being exported at the peak of the bilateral trade relations. It has since
set stringent conditions for the importation of Zimbabwean beef
products.

Last month, the ministry of lands and agriculture suspended all
efforts to resume trade with the European beef market, saying that it was
not worth trying because it will not get a fair deal.

Exports to the
two countries totalled about 100 million dollars last year, while tourist
arrivals from the EU and the US closed the year at about 140,000 in 2006.
This figure is four times that of arrivals from the East (including China),
which recorded only 37,000 arrivals during the same period.

Home-based care succumbing to economic burnout

HARARE, 18 October 2007 (IRIN)
- Zimbabwe's sinking economy and reduced donor support are threatening
home-based care (HBC) programmes for people living with HIV and AIDS,
according to a new report.

The survey, jointly produced by the Southern
Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) and the
Health Development Network (HDN), noted the impact of runaway inflation -
officially pegged at more than 6,000 percent - on HBC schemes once
considered models of their kind.

"One of the challenges is that we don't
always have the capacity to give clients everything they need; drugs are in
short supply, and the basic issue of money in their households is often a
challenge," Red Cross care facilitator Majulie Nyamhunga told
IRIN/PlusNews.

Home-based care had its genesis in the mid-1990s as public
health services, facing cost-cuts demanded by economic reforms, struggled to
absorb the swelling number of AIDS patients. The end of free medical care
hit the poorest households hardest, reducing their access to health
services, triggering interventions by church and civic groups.

The
extended family has traditionally been the first line of support but, when
it is unable to cope, community-centred HBC programmes staffed mainly by
volunteers have played a vital role in helping those in need. Caregivers
provide basic first aid and counselling, travelling long distances, usually
on foot, to reach affected households.

But Zimbabwe's economy has
been in a steep nose-dive since 2000, with acute shortages of foreign
currency, basic commodities, fuel and water, and unemployment hitting at
least 70 percent. The public health system has been crippled, unable to
replace ageing hospital equipment or fleeing medical staff.

Under
these conditions, the need for an effective HBC system becomes all the more
apparent, but rocketing inflation has made it difficult to supply even soap
and gloves to caregivers who, even more critically, have become exhausted by
their caseloads in a country where almost one in five adults is HIV
positive.

"When you see a client, and you see she is very sick, it is
very difficult to quickly forget," care facilitator Gamuchirai Guvamombe
explained.

"Community home-based caregivers have always been known to
volunteer their services. However, due to the harsh economic environment,
caregivers have suffered from burnout and some HBC programmes had to
introduce incentives to guarantee their retention," the SAfAIDS/HDN report
noted.

Deteriorating conditions

Caregivers, especially men, have
begun to drop out in increasing numbers; the report recommended providing
allowances, along with protective clothing, uniforms and bicycles to stem
the loss.

Zimbabwe's prevailing food insecurity, a consequence of drought
and foreign exchange shortages, has also hit HBC programmes, the survey
pointed out. Community caregivers have become preoccupied with fending for
themselves and their families before undertaking community
activities.

As a consequence, some HBC programmes have been forced to
scale back, reducing their areas of coverage, said the report. To try and
keep going in such a difficult environment, care-providers have pooled
resources or undertaken joint fundraising with donors; dire shortages have
sometimes led to the substitution of orthodox medicine with herbal remedies
in an attempt to offer relief to ailing
patients.

fm/ks/oa/he

[ENDS][This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Dangerous sex in "small houses"

HARARE, 18 October 2007 (PlusNews) - There's
a weekly television soap about the phenomenon, and even a hit rap song, as
Zimbabweans begin to own up to "small houses" - long-term illicit sexual
relationships - and their impact on HIV transmission.

"The small
house is a house of peace where I can rest mentally and physically while
being treated as a king. My responsibility is to pay the rent and buy food.
When I do buy the woman anything she is very grateful, whereas my wife and
children at the big house feel it is their right, and might not see the need
to appreciate what I do. Sexually, I can do at the small house that which I
do not necessarily do in my house," one man commented frankly.

There
is nothing new in extra-marital affairs, but what researchers are beginning
to appreciate is how casual sex is increasingly being replaced by
semi-formal relationships, in which safer sex is rarely
practiced.

Two factors seem to be driving the "small house" phenomenon:
Zimbabwe's economic crisis, which has left women financially vulnerable and
dependent, and AIDS awareness, which has reduced men's appetite for casual
sex.

"The desire for multiple sexual partners has convinced men that
small houses could be a safer way of continuing to enjoy sex with multiple
partners, rather than choosing monogamy and faithfulness, which are widely
viewed as Western ideals not applicable to Africans," Lois Chingandu,
executive director of the Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information
Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS), said in a recent discussion
paper.

Men interviewed felt secure that their new-found partners were
faithful only to them, and that using condoms would therefore be deemed an
insult. But the reality, Chingandu found, was that these were high-risk
relationships.

"Zimbabweans must openly confront and condemn small
houses, as they are a form of high-risk, multiple, concurrent sexual
relations. The current silent diplomacy found in most families is silently
fuelling HIV and AIDS, and needs to be stopped to save lives and reduce the
numbers of new infections," she wrote.

There is no single category of
women involved in small-house affairs: they range from young unemployed
women to older single mothers and divorcees who may well be looking for
companionship and sex. But economic support - rent, food, car payments or
school fees - is often a key motivating factor, and sometimes more than one
man is required to cover all the bills.

"Sometimes it becomes necessary
to have more than one person to meet my needs, so that the responsibilities
are shared. Once in a while we use casual sex to generate the extra income,"
one woman said in a focus group.

Safer sex

The women acknowledged
the risk involved in not practicing safer sex, "but emphasised the need to
appear trustworthy ... 'If you insist on condoms the men will leave because
they will believe that you are seeing other men. The more trustworthy you
look, the more you get'."

Anita Sanjala was a 21-year-old housemaid when
her employer made her pregnant; now aged 28, she is still his concubine. "He
comes over now and then to see how we are faring," Anita said of her lover,
who rents a two-roomed cottage in the upmarket Windsor Park suburb in the
city of Gweru, Midlands Province, for her and her son.

Although she
does not deny he may well be seeing other women, she seemed unfazed by it.
"So long as he provides me and my son support while I enjoy the freedom of
living apart from him and his wife, I am not bothered much," she told
IRIN/PlusNews.

Zimbabwe has managed to cut its HIV infection rate over
the last few years to 18 percent; small houses - and more particularly the
lack of condom use and gender inequality the relationships represent -
threaten those gains, with married women at particular risk.

"Married
women continue to face the high risk of HIV/AIDS infection, because it is
difficult for them to persuade their partners to use condoms when they
suspect them of having extramarital affairs or relationships," said Caroline
Nyamayemombe, of the United Nations Population Fund Agency
(UNFPA).

Most women "will claim not to know", even if they suspect their
husbands are cheating, said Chingandu. "Very few families will encourage the
woman to take responsibility for her own life and divorce. The fear of the
taboo that goes along with women taking the lead in getting a divorce
supersedes even their fear of dying from AIDS."

One posting on an
electronic forum in response to her paper was scathing: "As a married woman
myself, who is faithful to her husband and who prays that the husband is
also faithful, I just think small houses need to be sued because of the risk
they are putting not only [on] themselves, but us, the main houses, and the
children we are getting out of all these unions," the writer
commented.

Chingandu said, "Gender programmes need to do more in
empowering all women to demand their right to safer sex, and to deal with
the consequences that might arise. Communities must be encouraged to support
their ... [members] who want to divorce or leave these high-risk
relationships."

rm/oa/he

[ENDS][This report does
not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Zanu PF chef accused of sexual harassment

By Henry Makiwa17 October
2007

Karikoga Kaseke, a top Zanu PF official and Zimbabwe’s tourism boss,
was on Monday publicly accused of sexual harassment by former beauty queen
Sipho Mazibuko, barely a year after he evaded charges of raping a
minor.

Mazibuko who runs Strides Modelling agency and founded the Miss
Rural beauty pageant, told journalists in Harare that Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority (ZTA) chief Kaseke was now trying to block her business plans
because she turned down his sexual advances. But on Wednesday the former
permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications
dismissed Mazibuko as “mad”.

Mazibuko told stunned journalists at a press
conference that Kaseke was blocking the hosting of her pageant's finals
after she refused to sleep with him.

She said: "I have called you so
that you understand why we are postponing the finals of the Miss Rural
Zimbabwe pageant. We have been having problems with the ZTA which wants to
take over my pageant and is blocking the holding of the finals because I
refused to be Kaseke's girlfriend and to sleep with him." According to the
Zimonline news agency, Mazibuko was surrounded by more than a dozen burly
bodyguards at the press conference.

Kaseke’s ZTA, a quasi government body
that promotes tourism, has the authority to licence the hosting of all
beauty pageants in Zimbabwe.

He has counter-accused Mazibuko of
attempting to blackmail his organisation through unfounded
allegations.

He said: "I have contacted my lawyers to sue her for
criminal defamation and we will deal with her accordingly. She is well mad
and is on record as saying all men in Zimbabwe like her and she has insured
her body for US$1 million. Now she is moving around with over 16 bodyguards,
how crazy can one be. I am not losing any sleep over it at
all.”

Mazibuko, however insists she was harassed and has already filed
legal charges through her lawyers.

Kaseke is a former Civil Aviation
Authority of Zimbabwe chief executive and known loyalist of Vice President
Joyce Mujuru. He was last year forced to resign from his post in government
after he was accused of raping an under-age orphaned girl, Nyasha Sonia
Ndanga.

Country Loses Bid to Host ITT's 2008 AGM

Financial Gazette
(Harare)

18 October 2007Posted to the web 18 October
2007

Shame MakoshoriHarare

ZIMBABWE has lost the bid to host
Britain's Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT)'s 2008 annual general
meeting (AGM) in Harare, incurring a major blow in its campaign to lure
tourists from the lucrative European market, The Financial Gazette can
reveal.

ITT turned down Zimbabwe's bid because of the country's
contentious political situation, saying it could not be associated with the
promotion of the country as a safe holiday destination.

The
decision also came with an accompanying snub to Zimbabwe's invitation to the
ITT's two seminars, as well as a "kind invitation to ITT members to have
drinks on your stands", during the World Tourism Markets (WTM) expo to be
held in the UK next month.

The ITT took the decision on the basis
that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office had also advised against
travel to "certain parts of the country".

The ITT communicated its
position with the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) last week, saying the
rapid deterioration of the political and economic situation in the country
meant that it could not work with the institution to promote the
country.

"There has been a general increase in the level of violent crime
and a serious deterioration in the economy and infrastructure," the ITT said
in a letter to the ZTA, read to The Financial Gazette by a
source.

"I'm sorry that things have come to this and ITT is more happy to
promote Zimbabwe when things change," the letter, sent to the ZTA's Felcia
Munjaidi, noted.

ZTA chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke,
confirmed the ITT's snub to the ZTA's invitations, but told The Financial
Gazette they would "not lose sleep" due to the ITT's decision.

"We
can only feel pity for our friends at the ITT who have decided to feed on
poison under the assumption that if they feed on poison themselves it is
Zimbabwe that will die," Kaseke said.

"That assumption is of course
wrong, it cannot be like that and no miracle can do that, only he who feeds
on poison shall die, we cannot die on their behalf."

"They wanted to
host their annual conference here next year but they have said they will no
longer come because they have failed to overcome the volcanic and
earthquake-like pressure they have taken from their media," Kaseke
said.

More than 70 buyers from the UK alone have cancelled their
participation at the Zimbabwe International Travel Expo, which will kick off
in Harare tomorrow.

Founded in 1956, the ITT seeks to develop and
maintain professional standards throughout the travel industry for the
benefits of members.

More problems for SA man nabbed in Zim

Harare - A South African businessman appeared in
a Zimbabwean court to face charges of attempting to smuggle three rifles and
108 rounds of ammunition, a state-run daily reported on
Thursday.

McCallum Douglas Wayne, a 40-year-old tour operator, was
arrested at Harare International Airport after he was found with the
firearms and ammunition without a certificate, the Herald
reported.

He was granted Z$30-million(€705, US$1 000) bail on
Wednesday and ordered by a Harare magistrate to report three times a week to
police, although he still remains in custody on a separate immigration
warrant.

The prosecution said Wayne checked in at Harare
international airport on October 12 for a flight to South Africa but was
detained after a Sako rifle, Sauer rifle, a Mauser rifle and 108 rounds of
ammunition showed up in his luggage during security screening.

Free Youth Plan Demo On Country's Abuses

SW Radio Africa
(London)

18 October 2007Posted to the web 18 October
2007

Tererai Karimakwenda

The UK based pressure group Free Zim
Youth has organised a demonstration Friday to commemorate Africa Human
Rights Day, and they plan to petition African States to use more leverage on
the Zimbabwe authorities, who are not complying with the African Charter on
human rights.

October 21st is the actual day set aside by the African
Union to celebrate human rights on the continent, but the group scheduled
their demonstration for Friday in order to target key embassies while they
are open.

Free Zim coordinator Alois Mbawara explained that they will
march to the Zambian Embassy as the country currently chairs the Southern
African Development Community (SADC). They will also protest at the Ghanaian
Embassy, since Ghana currently chairs the African Union.

Mbawara
said: "We thought it was important to go to their embassies while they were
open and petition them to put Zimbabwe's human rights on the agenda. All 53
African countries ratified the African Charter, and Zimbabwe is not living
up to its protocol."

He added: "Zimbabwe is not respecting human rights.
Negotiations are in place but activists are being abducted and beaten. There
is no African peer review mechanism here." The youth leader was referring to
the talks being mediated by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, who also
developed the peer review mechanism that is supposed to see African states
hold each other accountable.

Mbawara said Free Zim will also march to
the home of the British Prime Minister, to petition Gordon Brown to adopt a
more engaging stance towards the Mugabe regime. Mbawara said: "Britain needs
to play a more engaging role since they are being accused of agitating for
regime change. We want to tell Brown to not be so vocal because it gives
Mugabe political leverage."

The demonstration on Friday will begin at
1:00 P.M. at the Zambian Embassy at Palace Gates, Kensington. They will then
march to Ghana's Embassy and to Number 10 Downing Street.